'India behind the Lahore attack'
Members of the Sri Lankan cricket team, from left, Jayawardene , Kapugedera and Paranawitana arrive at Colombo Airport. APP K Balachandran
First Published : 06 Mar 2009 03:25:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 06 Mar 2009 01:47:45 PM ISTCOLOMBO: Sri Lankan papers have slammed the tendency in some quarters to use the 3/3 terrorist outrage against Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, to demonise Pakistan and make it an international outcast.
One should condemn the many TV spotlights attempting to demonise Pakistan.
Sri Lanka too was at one time a victim of this ostracisation by countries, which affected our economy and damaged its good name, said an edit in the state-owned Daily News, Sri Lankas largest selling English language daily, on Thursday.
Though no particular country or region was mentioned by the Sri Lankan papers, it was clear that the reference was to India, and to some extent the West, which slammed Pakistan for turning a blind eye to the scourge of terrorism and nuturing it for use against its neighbours.
Independent English language daily The Island said, the best Sri Lankans could do for a friendly but struggling country like Pakistan was to avoid an adverse propaganda war. Defending the Sri Lankan governments decision to send the team to Pakistan when other countries like Australia and India had withdrawn, The Island said that Sri Lanka too had been boycotted earlier due to the war against Tamil Tiger terrorism. But Sri Lanka had gone ahead and organised several international events.
So it was Sri Lankas turn to stand by her all-weather friend, Pakistan, when she was invited to play cricket on the latters soil. And she did.Unfortunately, the least expected happened and now everybody is wise after the event, The Island noted.
PRO-LTTE WEBSITE BLAMES INDIA: A popular pro-Tamil Tiger website
http://www.puthinam.comPuthinam Tamil Daily News Page @ Puthinam.com has said that India may have been behind the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore. Its political commentator said that India was the only gainer in this outrage, as it could strain relations between Sri Lanka and its arch rival Pakistan.
India had always striven to wean Sri Lanka away from Pakistan and China, and of late, New Delhi had been giving military assistance to Sri Lanka towards this objective, the commentator said.
He recalled that there had been an attempt on the life of the Pakistani envoy in Sri Lanka, Bashir Wali Mohmand, because he was thought to be a firm supporter of Pakistan-Sri Lanka military relations having been an ISI officer himself.
The LTTE was immediately blamed for the botched attempt.
But later, on return to Pakistan, the envoy said that Indias RAW had engineered the attack.
This is from Sri Lankan source expressbuz